“Trying to flee?” The instant Jared summoned the core of his Chaotic Fire Lotus, preparing a desperate spatial escape, Soul Devourer’s icy voice exploded inside his mind like a wind from the Ninefold Hells. Space around him solidified and collapsed at once, as if he had been cast into millennial black ice.
The Chaotic True Flame and warp ripples he’d raised were smothered by a vaster, domineering soul force entwined with spatial law.
“Using teleportation magic before me? A child showing off petty tricks.” Without moving a step, Soul Devourer merely closed his five fingers toward the patch of warped air that held Jared.
“Space Prison! Soul-Devouring Cage!”
Crack!
The very air for a hundred paces around Jared seemed to seize, crushed in an unseen fist until it squealed like glass about to shatter.
From those splintering seams burst jet-black chains, forged of raw soul-energy fused with broken space. In an instant, they coiled around Jared and the chaotic true flame shielding him, sealing both in a choking mesh.
Every iron chain carried a snarling face—tormented spirits that gnashed at his aura and mind, sizzling as they chewed through Jared’s celestial light shield and soul.
Ugh!
The backlash of his escape technique, mixed with the chains’ poison, rocked him. Blood flooded his mouth and spilled unchecked across his chin.
He drove his chaotic celestial energy into the chains, hoping to snap them, yet the links only tightened, greedily drinking his strength while they did. Even the Chaotic True Flame could manage no more than a faint red glow upon the metal, nowhere near hot enough to burn it through.
“Return to me!” The Soul Devourer’s voice rolled out, low and cold. He closed his taloned fingers, then yanked back.
Whoosh!
Jared, a helpless kite on an invisible string, was ripped from the frozen pocket of space and flung across the battlefield. He struck the stone a few yards before the dark sovereign’s feet, the impact spraying chips of rock and a plume of gray dust.
Coughs tore out of him, bright blood spattering the shattered ground until the stones gleamed crimson.
He tried to rise, but the Soul-Devouring Cage continued to gnaw at power and will alike, reducing the simple act of standing to an agony beyond words.
“Run? Did I ever grant you leave to run?” The Soul Devourer sauntered closer, looking down on Jared with twin pinpoints of red light that dripped mirthless cruelty. “I’m not finished playing, little one.”
He lifted one foot, ghost-green soul-flames licking along the black scales, and brought it crashing toward Jared’s spine.
Boom!
Bone cracked loud enough to echo. Blood sprayed as Jared was driven into the earth, pain lancing through his vertebrae and turning the edges of his vision black.
Fragmented organs trembled under the blow, and a second geyser of blood, thick with shredded tissue, forced itself past his lips.
“Hmm? Tougher than you look.” A brief flicker of surprise crossed the Soul Devourer’s face, only to sharpen into an even wider, crueler grin. “Let’s see how long that lasts…”
He lifted his foot and brought it down again without mercy. One stomp after another, as though crushing an insignificant ant beneath his heel.
The Soul Devourer was not relying on brute force alone. Each step carried sinister demonic energy, poisonous and corrosive, gnawing at both body and soul.
Jared’s Golem Body had already shattered. The chains had eroded his chaotic immortal power, disrupting its flow, leaving him no choice but to endure the assault with sheer physical strength alone. Yet even a body tempered by Chaotic True Flame and countless refinements had its limits.
Faced with the savage onslaught of an ancient demon who had once surpassed the Heavenly Immortal Realm, his flesh began to give way.
Pain exploded through him. His back split open, bones groaning under unbearable pressure. His organs felt as though they were on the verge of collapsing, his meridians riddled with corruption as demonic power invaded relentlessly.
Agony surged through him in wave after wave. His spirit wavered, battered by wailing souls and piercing demonic echoes, teetering on the edge of collapse.
Humiliation—a humiliation unlike anything he had ever known. Jared’s eyes burned red. His teeth ground together as if about to shatter, and a low, animalistic growl tore from his throat.
Driven to desperation, Jared frantically urged the Chaotic Fire Lotus within his dantian, forcing out the last remnants of strength in a final act of resistance.
The Chaotic True Flame struggled to ignite along his body, trying to scorch the chains and burn away the invading demonic energy.
In the distance, the Dragonslayer Sword hummed anxiously, but Jared suppressed it with sheer force of will, binding it tightly with his divine sense. He would not allow it to move on its own and expose his final trump card.
“You still dare to resist?” Sensing the stubborn defiance within Jared and the searing heat of the Chaotic True Flame, the Soul Devourer’s eyes flashed with cold impatience.
“Hopelessly stubborn,” he sneered. “Then let me plunge you into true despair…”
He stopped stomping. Instead, he extended a single demonic hand. In his palm, a pitch-black vortex began to form, spinning slowly, radiating a terrifying pull.
This was a demonic vortex designed to devour vitality and soul essence alike, one of the Soul Devourer’s signature arts. The vortex aligned with the crown of Jared’s head and pressed down inch by inch. A horrifying suction surged forth.
Jared felt his life force, his chaotic celestial energy, even his very consciousness, being dragged uncontrollably toward that abyssal vortex. It felt as if all his life force were being drained, pulled away until nothing remained but an empty shell.
“It’s over, young one. Your fate is mine now…” The Soul Devourer’s voice was icy, merciless.
The shadow of death had never been so clear, so all-encompassing. Jared’s consciousness wavered; his strength drained at lightning speed. Even the rotation of the Chaotic Fire Lotus slowed.
Am I really going to die here? In the hands of this demon?
No! I refuse to accept this! I will not give up!
Just as Jared’s awareness teetered on the brink, and the demonic vortex threatened to touch the crown of his head, a piercing, authoritative shout rang out, sharp and commanding as a bolt of thunder from the heavens, suddenly detonating over the bloodstained ruin.
“Stop!”
